Gobble-uns: Beyond the pale

Having given you the cursory information aout the kingdoms of the Gobble-uns, i must now explain the lands beyond the boundaries of their civilization. For there are definite boundaries -- some lands are blocked by rivers, others are full of horrible beasts, and after the Amethyst War, it was agreed that state-sponsored expansion could only lead to empire, and empire could only lead to ruin.

Moreover, Gobblonia is bounded by enough of the extremely dangerous regions that there isn't really all that much room to expand. They have no ships capable of crossing the high seas, and see no reason to, for beyond the sea is (they believe) only the edge of the world.

Areas of unorganized settlement: the frontier, beholden to no kings. What law exists is set by the settlement, which makes visiting them difficult when they have things like "you must be this tall to enter."

Central America: shared with humans. This is where the brave gobble-un commoners who do not fear human interaction go; nevertheless, they are circumspect about who they greet. Children are safe bets, because they tend to exaggerate the details and look foolish.

Nicaragua: The Gobble-uns of this region like to fish for Bull Sharks, finding Lake Nicaragua a rich supply of them. It has become quite dangerous, because Bull Sharks are, in fact, sentient, and do not like being fished. They attack Gobble-uns on sight, now.

Panama: Because the canal counts as a river in Gobble-Un eyes, they can no longer cross it into Womp territory. Which is fine by them. The land of the Womps is forever closed to Gobble-uns.

Northern lands: fewer humans, more glory in suceeding to survive, but also more misery when the sun refuses to rise each winter.

Alaska: Polar bears and Mammoths (yes) are a problem, but the Gobble-uns say there's Amethyst in those hills.

The arctic islands of Canada: Also known as Indigo Territory -- full of silent, tall, blue beings who stride atop the snow and take no notice of the Gobble-uns. This creeps them out, but there's a group on Albert Island trying to open relations with the figures.

Greenland: Claimed by Old Man Morris ad agency, but not one person from that company has ever set foot on the island.

The Ice Cap: At the north pole, there is the Temple of the Sun and Moon. There are three reasons for its being located here: astronomers have observed this as the place where the sun does not move, in summer, and the moon does not move, in winter. Also, the cold means that critters canot damage the building, and thereore upkeep is minimal. Furthermore, the founders wanted to go somewhere where they wouldn't be bothered by anyone. Klondike, Land of Jerky and Dried Fruit, and Beluga serve the tourists who wish to make the journey to this temple.

Iceland: Gobble-uns are doing wonderful things with sheep here. they've already discovered a way to produce sheep in neon and primary colors.

The Edge Lands: across the strait from Alaska, this is the place to go on foot to see the Edge. It drops off fairly sharply, and when you look over, all you see is mist.

Areas of minimal/ no settlement, save for the bravest and the stupidest:

Wendigo territory: In Canada, the area centered around Great Slave lake and Lake Athabasca; home to -- well, the people from Saskatchewan say they're tall, white-furred creatures with bloody lips, but I've never been to Saskatchewan, so I can't say for sure. Other people say the Wendigo is never seen, but is heard in the wind, and always one member of the party thinks they're being called so they run out of the tent and run off into the woods and are never seen again. This happens so often that settlers evetually gave up on the area.

Then the Wendigo began moving southward. Nobody is sure why. Maybe they sought warmer climes and softer people. Maybe they were being driven south by the Windigo. There was no defense against them -- nothing anyone could do. They called to people, forced them to come out, and when that didn't work, they blew the houses down, and whole villages, whole regions were depopulated. It was only with the rise of the Ottowan Bear Cavalry that the Windigo were stopped;the Wendigo found that they could not lure the bears or the riders. The riders were too busy worrying about being eaten, and if they hopped off their bear too readily that's exactly what happened. The remaining cavalry drove the Wendigo back; it is from these brave soldiers that we get most of our descriptions of the Wendigo.

Windigo territory: The Windigo is a bit different. It manifests as a person about two feet high, with generally round features, holding a candy cane and singing merrily.

If you turn your back on it, you are devoured messily.

The Unknown lands: This is the land lying across the Mississippi River, not counting St. Paul; Gobble-uns say they've never been in this area. Then they say the place is full of demons and shadows and chariots that run you down and mobile trees. One wonders how they know.

They call the place "Columbia". Their records clearly show trade with settlements in the area, so it's not like they've never been there. What went wrong?

Womp Land: south of Panama is a land full of jungles, tall trees, high mountains, and Womps. The Gobble-uns posit this as another possible place of their origin; I'm more inclined to go with the Grand Canyon, because it seems like Womps are taking up all the space. Womps will be covered in a separate entry, being of particular concern to the Gobble-uns at the moment. Suffice to say, they have big flat feet and not much else to them.

Separate nations: What, did you think it was only Gobblonia?

Great Googly Moogly/ Greater Googly Moogly: the latter being the land that the city claims, being a large part of the west coast of North America and extending inland to the Great Basin. Great Googly Moogly is located on the southern tip of the Baja peninsula; it is home to the Googly Mooglies, a species quite unlike Gobble-uns. They're much more cute. Great Googgly Moogly is a stopping point for ships coming from Acapulco and Corrientes, on their way to Olympia and Klondike; they do much business involving ship repair and ship building and ship crewing -- Googly Mooglies supply most of the ships that Gobble-uns use, as well as the majority of the crewmembers. I said Gobble-uns had few ships capable of crossing the high seas; I did not say these ships were non-existent. They all belong to Greater Googly Moogly.

The Googly Mooglies will also receive their own separate entry, for of all the Little Folk, they have had the longest reltions with the Gobble-uns and have influenced them in numerous ways. It was the googly-mooglies, for instance, who gave the Gobble-Uns the idea of hiding on the other side of the world, which saved the Gobble-un cities from destruction as the white settlers advanced.